Competing with over 280 entries from public and private schools across India, two teachers affiliated with schools under AIF’s Digital Equalizer program won top places at the DELL PolicyHack Challenge. A science teacher, Parvinder Kumar’s idea for conservation of birds won the first position, while Social Studies teacher Ayesha Mukhtar’s idea of “Peer Learning” won the third position at the interactive hackathon, which challenged teachers and school representatives to present innovative ideas that they have been using to leverage technology for themselves, as well as for the benefit of their students.

Entries were judged by a panel comprising of Sanjay Awasthi, Member Secretary of the National Council for Teacher Education), Rajive Gulati, Head of start-up incubator HARTRON, Prof. Dr. Anantha Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP, Subir Shukla, Founder of Ignus, Ajay Kaul, Director and GM, Dell EMC, and Ritu Gupta, Director of Consumer India, Dell. The PolicyHack promoted constructive discussion, while creating an ecosystem to understand the key problems that impact the teaching journey of a teacher.

Through digital technology, AIF’s Digital Equalizer program partners with the DELL Youth Learning (DYL) program to improve teaching-learning experience and also enhance the quality of education in under-resourced government schools in India. Delivering content across six key subjects including Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, English, IT Literacy and Financial Literacy, the program empowers teachers to be more effective in creating a deeper understanding of the subjects by using innovative ideas and also enhances the competencies of the students, along with their learning outcomes.